Fantasy Pool Look: Clark making poolies believe

Darryl Dobbs
2006-12-13 00:35:00

With a career high of 39 points last season, Washington right winger Chris Clark didn't appeal to many fantasy owners. Entering his seventh NHL season, he seemed to be a 20-point player who happened to play with one of the best players in the NHL in Alex Ovechkin. Under those conditions, it seemed as if he would top out at 40 points.

Not so.

The 30-year-old has learned to shoot more and that works out really well with his newfound accuracy. Clark is on pace for nearly 200 shots and 18.8 per cent of his shots are going in. If he keeps up it up, he would easily surpass he previous career bests of 126 shots (in 2002-03) and 13.9 per cent (last year). Clark has managed 12 goals in just 28 games this season and he isn't showing any signs of slowing down. If anything, he is picking up the pace, scoring seven goals in his last seven games.

The Clarkson grad has 25 points this season, with most coming while playing on a line with Ovechkin and Dainius Zubrus. We are far enough into the NHL schedule to start believing Clark's surprise numbers are a true indicator of his potential and poolies are starting to scoop him up. While his current 71-point pace is a little far-fetched, it is not unrealistic to imagine him tallying 60. That would constitute more than half the points of his six prior seasons combinedÂ…

Now that Martin Havlat and Radim Vrbata are both in the lineup at the same time, look for Vrbata to put some big points on the board. He picked up a pair Tuesday night against Columbus, giving him 12 points in eight games with Havlat in the lineupÂ…

Detroit's Daniel Cleary now has 18 points in his last 16 games. The normal ice time for him these days is 15-17 minutes per game, which is a far cry from the 10 minutes he was getting at the beginning of the season and over the last few yearsÂ…

Martin St-Louis has nine points in his last three games. Talk about streaky Â– the Tampa forward had earlier streaks of nine in four and 20 in 12. Those three streaks add up to 38 points in 19 games. His cold spells add up to three points in 12 games, making him the perfect example of a player who scores in bunches, but can also go dry for extended periodsÂ…

Injuries, from a fantasy pool perspective: Some facts about the Columbus Blue Jackets: they are winning hockey games, scoring goals and have their three key defensemen out of the lineup. When I see information like that about a team, I immediately sense a steal. I'm always on the lookout for a cheap roto-league pickup and you should be, too. With Bryan Berard (back), Duvie Westcott (hand) and Adam Foote (lower body) on the sidelines, players such as Rostislav Klesla, Anders Eriksson and Ron Hainsey come to mind as cheap pickups. During Columbus's five-game winning streak - Klesla (one), Eriksson (four) and Hainsey (five) have combined for 10 points. The three have been getting more than four minutes of power play time per game of late.

Darryl Dobbs' Fantasy Pool Look is an in-depth presentation of player trends, injuries and much more as it pertains to rotisserie pool leagues. Get the edge in your league - check out the latest scoop every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. Also, get the top 300 roto-player rankings on the 1st of every month in THN's Fantasy section.